If your average person were hard pressed to name every dinosaur that came to mind we all know the names that would crop up; Tyrannosaurus, Stegosaurus, Triceratops, and since 1993…Velociraptor. I can’t think of many genera that achieved so much fame so fast, at least not since the so called golden age of paleontology in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s when most well known dinosaurs were discovered. Jurassic Park was responsible for launching the entire dromaeosaurid clan into stardom but Jurassic Park was not the first to portray these creatures in popular culture, nor the first to produce merchandise depicting the infamous maniraptorans.
As a child of the late 80’s I like so many of my fellow blog readers paid witness to the short lived Dino-Riders cartoon and their action figure counterparts, the show actually having been created in order to promote the toy line. The show itself was pretty awful but I was five and easy to please. I had many fond memories of the show and the toys as well. One of the toys was the Deinonychus and it was my first introduction to the dromaeosaur branch of the dinosaur family tree. It was nothing special when I first received it but I couldn’t foresee Jurassic Park and it’s raptors only six years away. Once Spielberg’s movie came out I had raptor fever and my Tyco Deinonychus was always getting into trouble alongside my Kenner Velociraptor.
The Tyco line is an interesting one that far surpassed the television show in terms of quality. So impressive and accurate (for the time) were the dinosaurs that the Smithsonian repackaged them without all the weapons and armor as a respectable line of dinosaur figures. Famed artist William Stout is credited with designing the toys, according to the Wikipedia page anyway. The Deinonychus toy in particular is quite unique and I feel represents an interesting period in time when we didn’t quite know what kind of animal we were dealing with. It seems that despite the bird-like qualities of the actual animal people were dead set on the dinosaurs-are-reptiles mentality. Many old (and some modern) Deinonychus reconstructions were done this way; twisting what was essentially a bird into a lizard.
It should go without saying that the Tyco Deinonychus has its inaccuracies, a lot of them. I don’t really want to get into the specifics because we all know what they are. Aside from the glaring and obvious inaccuracies the toy suffers from all kinds of other anatomical and proportional issues as well. I’m sure some of the accuracy was compromised so the thing could stand upright with all its gear and rider. About the only thing accurate with this thing is the tail, held out stiff from the body.
This figure is capable of standing on two legs, albeit on two very strange looking clubbed feet. It looks fast and agile, even the action feature suggests as much. When you press the button on the back the toy’s legs kick back and forth in a comical fashion. The arms move too, the hands aside from being pronated are quite small as well. The head on the creature is actually kind of cute. The pointed mouth is a prefect triangle shape and has several little blunt teeth painted white. The eyes are yellow with black pupils. Rather than paint the eyes on like many companies do, Tyco dinosaurs gave the figures little beads instead, which bring a lot of life to the line. The body of this Deinonychus is covered with nicely textured scales over the entire body, never mind that there should be feathers there instead. Where color is concerned the figure is mostly brown with grey coloration dorsally that forms stripes over the side. The brown fades pale on the underside.
In the end what we’re left with is a nicely made vintage representation of a now famous and well known dinosaur. It offers if nothing else a window into a time before these animals were the well known cultural icons they are today. If you want to find one you may have some difficulty, they have been out of production for a long time and are highly collectible. Your best bet is eBay and with some patience and luck you might be able to find one cheap in a lot like I did or just pay the extra cash to get one sold by itself, they are one of the cheaper Tyco dinosaurs.
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Trivia adding: WILLIAM STOUT did not design any Dinorider toy. He did design the dinosaurs from the cartoon, though. Is very possible that every dinosaur shown in the show was already designed as either a released or a yet to be released toy, but for the cartoon movement and behaviour and attitudes were needed and Stout was hired to add that. (Don Glut, screenwritter of the cartoon and friend of Stout, was the first who confirmed this date to me by email. I also emailed Stout if he was involved in the toy making at some level but he kept quiet about that, he only confirms the involvement in the cartoon designs).
The one who was actually involved in the early toy designs (before a cartoon existed) was Robert Bakker. The deinonychus of this review was probably his most obvious piece of work. He designed many “reinassance” toys for the first series but Tyco ended rejecting many if his heresic ideas (retarded, if you ask me, since it was you who choose this man as your designer). Bakker had a tough time till he got the Struthiomimus feathered. His reinassance “warm blooded” stegosaurus was rejected though, and changed to a cold blooded Zdenek Burian style toy. Luckily enough the stego rejected design was recicled into the Kentrosaurus.
Thor keeps you safe.
I’ve had two of these and the kicking action didn’t work on either. The button just didnt want to press down. Is that part often faulty?
I had this too! I want it again now, for all its inaccuracies. I like its stylisation.
I still have this one somewhere, and I simply adore how cheapy/crappy it is. As for the kicking action – don’t get me started about how often it kicked the Kentrosaurus’ arse!
I had this one as a kid – being a bit younger than you (apparently) I bought it as part of the Smithsonian line. I always found the tiny hands odd…